Long live the king!  That is, until he becomes an undead tyrant bent on the destruction of the world.  Then he must die.  Again.  With fire. 

Anyway, yeah, so I finally got Kingslayer last night.  Kind of ironic, since I've been doing heroic-modes in Icecrown Citadel for a few weeks now.  (7/12 at the moment.)  But anyway, it was good to get that done.  I now feel that I've finished the expansion in full.  Closure is a good thing. 

Mafia 2

This game instills in you a certain feeling, and that feeling is one of not quite being in control of any given situation.  For a game of this nature, that's a double-edged sword.  For the most part, it works out just fine.  Sometimes, though, you're left wishing you had a bit more control over what happens to your character.  In this day and age when sandbox-style, open-ended games are all the craze, it's kind of surprising. 


So in Mafia 2 you play as a Wiseguy in 1945 Empire Bay (which is basically a fancy fake name for New York City).  The thing that appealed to me right away was the painful attention to detail the developers put into ensuring you really felt as though you'd just been dropped into the year 1945, but at the same time made the city feel alive. 





The thing that stuck with me the most was the radio stations.  All the music matched the period.  And, in the pre-prison 1945 gameplay, the music was often interrupted with news about how the Allies were faring in World War II in Europe. 


They just added so much to this game to add a bit of flavor and life to it.  For all you self-respecting straight males out there, there are Playboy magazines randomly strewn about the city for you to find and collect.  Just like the one Steve here is reading. 





So right.  On to the story.  First things first:  It's too damned short.  For a game that has drawn SO many comparison to the Grand Theft Auto series, this game is about 1/4 the length of a typical GTA game, and a lot less open-ended.  I can understand the limited open-endedness.  If that's how you want to make your game, then fine.  You'll find no side missions here, nor any real reason to go randomly exploring.  You can steal any car and rob any shop, but none of these activities provides a unique feeling, nor gives you anything terribly worthwhile. 





The missions, however, are exuberantly entertaining.  If you go into this game with the knowledge that you'll basically be playing a linear, gangster-based third-person shooter, you will be quite pleased.  This is where the game shines. 





This game borrows every cool thing it can from just about every mobster movie ever made, including but not limited to the Godfather films and Goodfellas. 





There will be an incredible amount of killing and stealing.  Lots.  Lots and lots. 





And, sometimes, your friends are the ones who are killed.





I would have liked a bit more character development, but there was a enough to get me engaged in the main story and actually want to know what happens. 


Bottom line though — if you're looking to do a hell of a lot of shooting, a hell of a lot of stealing, and a hell of a lot of car stealing…and look great while doing it (see below), then this is the game for you.





Now playing: The Temper Trap - Fader

Ah, September

Today is the first day of September, which reminds us that soon (very soon), Fall will be upon us.  I don't mind Fall, other than the fact that it serves as that unpleasant reminder about Winter not far away.  Screw Winter. 

Torchlight

I've been playing the hell out of Torchlight since Friday night.  Overall, since then, I've clocked a whopping 21 hours into the game according to Steam.  That's a lot.  There are two reasons for this.  The first is that I recently read about Torchlight 2, and the fact that it should be available in the Spring of 2011.  That inspired me to play the first one, especially since the second one mentioned that it will have co-op.  Sweet.  Secondly, I needed something to play until Mafia II comes out on Tuesday.  (And something to fall back on, should Mafia II end up sucking the big one.)

Steam has added 66 achievements to SteamCloud since I last played the game.  I have 26 of them so far.  And yes, I will admit that part of the reason I'm still playing the game is so that I can get more achievements.  I beat the final boss of the game after 8 hours. 

Now playing: Linkin Park - Shadow Of The Day

Hi. My name is PD and I'm an RTS noob.

Now, you're all supposed to say, “Hi, PD!”. 

In any case, I don't know what you people see in this genre, but I certainly don't see it.  Perhaps  I've just played too many action games, too many RPG games, too many shooters.  I don't know.

I'm not giving up though.  I'm going to play Starcraft 2's single-player campaign and I'm going to play practice matches against the AI until I just suck, instead of UTTERLY SUCK.

Now playing: Foster The People - Pumped Up Kicks

This is a great quote.

“Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you; you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for.” — Bob Marley

Now playing: Coconut Records - Nighttiming

Oooh, a milestone!

Happy 5th birthday PD Chronicles!  To celebrate the five year anniversary of my blog, below are links to five blog entries that I feel are memorable.  I'm not going to call them "The most memorable" because I'm too fucking lazy to sift through every single blog post I've made in the last five years.  That would be insane.  So anyways...here you go!  Enjoy the little trip down memory lane.

Pictures from Copenhagen

Performance Review

Public Restroom Facilities

The Midget Story

The 25 Most Shocking Moments in Gaming